San Jose: More park rangers will help curb creekside homeless encampments

SAN JOSE -- Exasperated residents increasingly have turned up the heat on local government to come up with better solutions to deal with unsightly homeless encampments, after massive cleanups have resulted in squatters reclaiming the sites sometimes within hours.

So now officials are trying a new strategy: More park rangers.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District board voted unanimously Tuesday to give the city of San Jose $175,000 for two additional park rangers to help patrol creek areas. This comes after the new city budget already had approved money for adding another two rangers.

While four more park rangers might not sound like all the much, officials are hoping a stepped-up presence along the creeks will discourage homeless people from returning to cleared-out encampment sites, or even from going there in the first place.

"Cleaning sites is OK, but clean-ups by themselves are not sufficient," said Chris Elias, a watershed manager for the water district. "We need to enhance the park ranger element. This is a win-win measure. We're helping the city to help us keep the creeks clean."

Illegal encampments have become a hot-button political issue in the past year or so. Residents have loudly complained about trash-laden camps, the crime associated with them, as well as the fouling of waterways. The water district action is the latest sign of the collaborative effort between local agencies to get a better handle on the problem.

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Both the city and water district in recent weeks agreed to continue sharing the cost of encampment cleanups. There are 48 planned in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1. The hope is additional park rangers will help keep those sites cleaned out.

"Park rangers have an intimate knowledge of the waterways in San Jose," said Ray Bramson, the city's project manager in charge of the encampment issue. "They know what's going on in the creeks, so they provide us with a rapid response in dealing with new sites and keeping old sites clear. It's a proven model."

Added Elias: "We think having more boots and eyes on the ground is an important component."

The water district does not have its own policing force. And the city's park ranger staff, Bramson said, has been reduced from 24 to perhaps fewer than 10 by budget cuts in recent years.

According to a 2011 survey, 7,000 people are homeless on any given night in Santa Clara County. Of those, about 2,500 are categorized as being chronically homeless. A new census was conducted earlier this year, and those results are expected to be released sometime this week.

Bramson said there are an estimated 60 encampments in San Jose. Of those, between 10 and 20 are classified as large, numbering more than 50 people. They typically are situated along waterways, most often the Guadalupe and Coyote creeks.

Lilly washes her feet in the Coyote Creek, which runs through the homeless encampment known as "The Jungle" off Story Road in San Jose, Calif. on Tuesday, March 26, 2013. Lilly is homeless and lives in a campsite near the creek. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group)
(LiPo Ching)

At Tuesday's water district meeting, board member Barbara Keegan said residents she hears from are more than just concerned about homelessness.

"They're actually frightened to the point of not using the trails," Keegan said.

There is widespread agreement that ultimately the best way to solve the encampment problem is to provide more permanent housing for the homeless. Bramson and Elias said that in addition to their enforcement duties, park rangers can point the homeless toward social services that hopefully can lead them off of the creek banks.

But both emphasized that clearing out encampments has to be a priority because theyare not safe or sanitary for the people living there or the environment.

"These places simply were not meant for human habitation," Elias added. "Our creeks are wildlife corridors. Having people live down there disturbs that. Also there is a public safety element because trash build-up is a threat to blocking flood waters."